


Cooking Class

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cooking Lessons, Established Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Fluff, Getting Together, Multi, Polyamory, established pepper potts/tony stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22823458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Pepper signs her and Tony up for a couples cooking class, and Tony-- in true fashion-- gets a guy’s number.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Pepper Potts/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 58
Collections: Marvel Polyship Bingo 2020





	Cooking Class

**Author's Note:**

> For marvel polyship bingo N3-Constellation Square

"A couples cooking class?" Tony repeated. "Please tell me you're joking. Pep, Pepper, spice of my life, I need you to tell me that you're joking." 

"I'm not," Pepper said, flipping through some papers. 

"Why would we need a cooking class? We eat out most of the time, and when we don't, we have a chef." Not to say that Tony wasn’t capable of cooking rice when the occasion called for it, but anything more complicated than that and it fell apart. 

"Well we're not going to have a chef forever." 

"We're not?" Tony asked, blinking at her. "I'm generational money, Pep, I grew up this way and I'm going to die this way." 

She gave him a flat look. "We're going to get old and be domestic, and I, for one, want to be prepared." 

Tony was about to argue with that, then he paused, raising an eyebrow. Pepper had gotten used to the rich lifestyle when her and Tony were dating, and by the time they got married, it was almost like she'd been there the entire time. She didn’t think that one day they’d be without all their luxuries, this had to be something else. "Uh-huh, what is this actually about?" 

She was quiet for a second, then, "Natasha said it was a good fun couple activity." 

Tony groaned, but they both knew that they were doing this now. "I can't believe we're taking Natasha's advice." 

"She gives good advice." Pepper paused, probably remembering that time Natasha had convinced her to go to karate classes and she'd absolutely hated it. "About our relationship," she added. After all, it had been Natasha who floated the idea of polyamory to them, and that had worked like a dream. 

"Not other relationships though," Tony said with a chuckle. Her matchmaking tendencies normally ended in failure, but that's why she had specifically said 'about our relationship' and not 'all relationships'. "Fine, couples cooking class. Great." 

"I want you to promise me that you won't start playing with chemicals if you get bored." 

"Aww c'mon! It's a kitchen, Pepper, they won't even have the fun chemicals." 

"Allow me to rephrase," she said, her business voice edging in a little, like it always did when Tony was pretending not to get the point. "I want you to either stay focused on cooking or stand there without touching anything. No fires allowed." 

"What if the cooking requires a fire?" 

"Then I'll do it, and you can stand there and tell me how you could make it bigger if I let you. Which I won't, because I like my hair where it is. It's only one class a week." 

"For how many weeks?" 

When she didn't reply immediately, Tony knew he wouldn't like the answer. "Ten." 

"Ten weeks? That's two and a half months." 

"Funnily enough, I can count." 

"You were an accountant when we met, I know you can count." 

"It's nice to remind you sometimes, it's like you forget." 

"I could never forget Mrs. Stark." 

"This is what I get for taking your last name." 

"It was the right decision, people couldn't get mad about the company being out of Stark hands." 

"Right," she said drily, "because that's why I did it." 

"Pepper Potts sounded good, but not as good as Pepper Stark. Is that why you changed it?" 

"Yes, Tony. I took your last name because it made my name sound better. First class is tomorrow, your schedule is clear, I'll pick you up from the workshop at five." 

"Tomorrow? But-" 

"I couldn't give you time to find a way out of it." 

"So you tricked me instead. Very nice. That's not the way for a happy and healthy relationship, you know." 

Knowing that he was exaggerating, Pepper rolled her eyes. 

* * *

In general, Tony wasn't very good at doing what he was told. In the kitchen however, it was easy to do what the instructor said, and even easier to listen to Pepper when she corrected him on something he hadn't cared to pay attention to. 

Pepper had to go to the bathroom, so Tony was spinning himself in circles on the stool. Literally. The stool could swivel, and Tony was keeping his promise to Pepper by not messing with anything while the lemon bars were in the oven, so he was spinning in circles. 

"You're Tony Stark, ain'tcha?" a man off to the side asked, and Tony slowed to a stop. 

The room was spinning around him, but he thought he did a pretty good job of pretending like it wasn't; he had plenty of practice, after all. "Yep, that's me." 

"I'm sure you get this all the time, but I wanted to say thank you." 

That normally wasn't what followed the phrase 'I'm sure you get this all the time', but it was a happy surprise. "Uh, you're welcome?" 

The room started to settle, and the man came into focus. Right, he'd been at the table next to their's. He was big, like could probably bench press Tony and Pepper at the same time big, with long dark hair pulled back in a bun, stubble lining his jaw, and-- most importantly-- a prosthetic arm that Tony recognized as one of his own. He didn't recognize the person it was attached to though, which meant he hadn't been part of the original trials. "Before you came along, prosthetics cost- well, an arm an' a leg," he said with a half smile. "This one works like a real arm and didn't cost half as much so... thanks." 

"No problem. You should thank Pepper when she gets back, she's the reason they're affordable. I'm Tony, by the way, since we didn't do official introductions earlier." 

"Bucky. I didn't wanna interrupt," he said, smile growing wider. "Seemed like th' two of you were uh, busy." 

Tony snorted. "I don't like quiet and she doesn't like when I talk at her. Believe me, we don't fight half as much as it looks like." 

"Still sounds like a lotta fightin'," he teased. 

"And you and that blond beefcake are better?" 

He snorted. "It's ridiculous to hear Stevie described like that." 

"Are we talking about the same person? What other way is there to describe him?" 

"Nah that's how he is now, but back in the day, he was a shrimpy lil thing. I could pick him up with one hand." 

"You still could," Tony pointed out, poking at Bucky's flesh and blood bicep. "That doesn't feel like it's for show." 

"It ain't," Bucky said, amused and moving slightly closer instead of stepping back. "But he's big enough to fight back now, and he don't like gettin' dragged around." 

"He's missing out, it's pretty fun." 

"That an offer?" 

"Not if your boyfriend is going to punch me when he finds out." 

"Me and Steve have an open relationship. If the news is to be believed, you do too?" 

"I wouldn't call it _open_ but yeah, basically. I'm free Sunday night if you wanted to grab a bite, see if it'll work out." 

"Can't do late Sunday, gotta work early on Monday's, but yeah that sounds good." Bucky fished out his phone from his pocket and unlocked it, handing it over for Tony to put his number in. 

Pepper came back while Tony was typing in his digits, and she shook her head fondly. "I'm gone for three minutes and you get a date." she turned to Bucky and talked like she was confiding a secret, "He does this all the time and acts like I'm the flirty one between us." 

"How rude of him." Bucky accepted his phone back when Tony gave it to him. "And you're really okay with...?" 

"Absolutely," she said, waving him off. "Gives me time to get a few things done that Tony doesn't like." 

"Like what?" 

"Painting my nails, he hates the smell." 

"Can't you do that in the bathroom?" Bucky suggested. 

Tony wrinkled his nose. "The stink gets _everywhere_." 

"Sensitive nose, got it. Steve's prolly gonna stare at you for a minute straight when I tell him, by the way. He always tries to see what I see in people." 

"He'll love me, I'm an absolute delight." 

"You're damn right you are," Pepper said, peering through the oven door. 

Sure enough, when Steve came over a few minutes later and Bucky told him, he looked at Tony for a long while, his eyes squinting like maybe if he tried hard enough he'd figure it out. At the end of that though, he said to Bucky, "I don't see it." 

Bucky pat him on the shoulder. "I don't expect you to."


End file.
